14 June, 2017

South Korea claims suspected DPRK drone spies on THAAD site

A South
Korean military source has said that a suspected drone of the
Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), which was found last
week near the east inter-Korean border, spied on the U.S. Terminal
High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) deployment site in southeast South
Korea.

According to
an unnamed South Korean military official cited by local media
outlets on Tuesday, the drone took hundreds of pictures, including
about 10 photos of the THAAD site, with an embedded camera. The
photos, taken by the drone camera, included those of two mobile
launchers and the radar of the U.S. missile shield that were
installed on April 26.

Two THAAD
mobile launchers and the AN/TPY-2 radar as well as other equipment
were transported on the day to the site, or a golf course at
Soseong-ri village in Seongju county, North Gyeongsang province. The
Seongju county is some 270 km south of the military demarcation line
(MDL) that has divided the two Koreas since the three-year Korean War
ended in armistice in 1953.

The
suspected DPRK drone was first detected last Thursday by a resident
at a mountainous area in Inje, Gangwon province near the eastern
inter-Korean land border, according to reports. The Joint Chiefs of
Staff (JCS) said last Friday that the suspected drone was similar in
size and shape to the DPRK drone that was seen in March 2014 at
Baenyeong Island near the western border. After a detailed analysis,
however, the object was found to be different from the past DPRK
drones, as it was bigger in size and had a twin engine.